Free Republic

Jeb Bush said Tuesday he hopes incoming first lady Melania Trump takes her husband’s cellphone away so he can focus on leading the country. The former Florida governor and GOP rival to Donald Trump quipped during a lecture at the William Waldon Cameron Forum in Texas that he hopes "Melania steals his phone," noting the president-elect has been known for tweeting at odd hours of the night. Bush said Tuesday he hopes the president-elect is successful. The two famously sparred during the 2016 Republican presidential primary debates and on the campaign trail before Bush dropped out in February. Others have...

President Obama has put Chelsea Manning, the former Army intelligence analyst serving a 35-year sentence for leaking classified material, on his short list for a possible commutation, a Justice Department source told NBC News. A decision could come as soon as Wednesday for Manning, who has tried to commit suicide twice this year and went on a hunger strike in a bid for gender reassignment surgery. "I have more hope right now than I have the entire time since she was sentenced," Manning's aunt, Deborah Manning, told NBC News....

New analysis from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce (Georgetown Center) finds that President-elect Trump’s 10-year $1 trillion infrastructure proposal could create 11 million jobs, restoring the job growth trajectory derailed by the Great Recession, but also risks overheating the economy. It is not surprising that $1 trillion in spending on infrastructure is certain to have positive employment effects in keeping with standard Keynesian theory. However, the additional spending, in combination with tax cuts and other economic policy shifts proposed by the President-elect, could generate inflation and set the stage for further interest rate hikes. President-elect Trump’s...

In January, 1961, Dwight Eisenhower delivered his Farewell Address after serving two terms as U.S. President; the five-star General chose to warn Americans of this specific threat to democracy: “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.” That warning was issued prior to the decade-long escalation of the Vietnam War, three more decades of Cold War mania, and the post-9/11 era, all of which radically expanded that unelected faction’s power even further. This...

Each day brings fresh proof that America is hopelessly headed down the wrong track and needs to change direction. Meryl Streep’s pompous attack on Donald Trump and his supporters at the Golden Globes is one example, and a second involves the heckling idiots who wore KKK outfits yesterday to smear Sen. Jeff Sessions during his confirmation hearing to be attorney general. A third proof comes from the Mideast. Predictably, this one involves an Arab terrorist shedding Israeli blood. Soon after Palestinian and Jordanian leaders railed against Trump’s plan to move our embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a...

United States President-elect Donald Trump has reportedly taken the first step toward confirming one of the worst fears of undocumented Caribbean and other immigrants who have taken advantage of a programme that grants them temporary stay in the US. According to New York’s Vice News, a US Department of Homeland Security memo states that the president-elect’s team is “poking around the agency” for information about recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, also known as DACA. President Barack Obama started the programme through an executive action in 2012 as a way for undocumented immigrants who meet certain requirements to achieve...

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping's delegation to next week's World Economic Forum in the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos is open to meeting with President-elect Donald Trump's team, an official said Wednesday. Vice Foreign Minister Li Baodong told reporters at a briefing that "there are open channels of communication" with Trump's team. Bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the annual gathering of business leaders, politicians and cultural icons are still being finalized, but China would look into what sort of arrangements could be made "as long as the schedule permits and if there is the wish," he said....

So the website BuzzFeed decided to publish a series of memos that have been floating around for months alleging all kinds of terrible things about Donald Trump. Some of those terrible allegations have to do with efforts to influence the American elections and Trump. Some of them have to do with Trump’s personal sexual conduct. Readers of this newspaper know well not to include me among Trump’s supporters. But the scurrilousness of what BuzzFeed has done here is so beyond the bounds of what is even remotely acceptable it should compel even those most outraged by Trump’s political excesses to...

MEXICO CITY (REUTERS) - Mexico’s new Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said on Tuesday (Jan 10) there is no way his country will pay for the wall that US President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to build on the United States’ southern border to keep out illegal immigrants. “There’s no way that could happen,” Videgaray said on Mexican television a few days after his appointment. “There are no circumstances...not even the best possible trade deal, investments, support which would justify taking a step that would violate the dignity of Mexicans to such an extent.” The wall has been a bone of contention...

Donald Trump plans to keep his Manhattan-based campaign headquarters open as he assumes the presidency – a move that represents a sharp break from his predecessors, and one that positions him to begin running for reelection in 2020. According to three people briefed on the plans, Trump intends to retain a skeletal campaign staff of around ten people with a senior aide at the helm. They will work in Trump Tower, the Midtown skyscraper that Trump’s 2016 campaign was based out of. The office will be overseen by Michael Glassner, a veteran Republican strategist and top campaign adviser who has...

Leaders of a pro-Hillary Clinton political group threatened to fire employees who questioned its founder’s criticism of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, according to a former staffer. Employees of American Bridge 21st Century, an opposition research-focused super PAC that backed Clinton’s candidacy, “had their employment threatened when they complained” about the treatment of Sanders, said Will Urquhart, formerly an American Bridge video tracker. Urquhart revealed the group’s treatment of Sanders supporters in a pair of tweets on Tuesday. He was responding to statements by American Bridge founder David Brock, who publicly apologized on Tuesday for his treatment of Sanders. “I recognize...

Understanding the scarcity of H-1B visas, early in 2016, the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), in partnership with the City University of New York (CUNY), launched the International Innovators Initiative (IN2NYC) to build a pathway to help international entrepreneurs grow companies and create jobs in the United States, specifically in New York City. The program is now bearing fruit as its first two entrepreneurs are setting up their businesses within the CUNY incubator. Gabor Tankovics, a native of Hungary, will base his company, Dartboard, at LaGuardia Community College and Namisha Bahl from India will begin mentoring students at...

President-elect Donald Trump's meeting with Alibaba founder and executive chairman Jack Ma on Monday was brilliant — but not for the obvious reason of making him look good for being part of a conversation about creating 1 million jobs. What's really smart about it is that puts China on its heels. Trump and Beijing have been engaged in a back-and-forth rattling of sabers from the minute Trump won the election. Remember that Trump took a congratulatory call from Taiwan's president and on the same day Trump met with Ma, a state-run Chinese tabloid warned that China would "take revenge" if...

With a Navy commitment in hand to build 18 new Columbia-class nuclear submarines, Electric Boat in Groton is planning a hiring and spending spree that will be felt across the state. The company is gearing up to hire 2,000 new employees this year at its Connecticut and Rhode Island plants, with 1,350 jobs slated for Groton. Electric Boat employs about 14,500 people in Connecticut and Rhode Island, and that employment is projected to grow to 18,000 by 2030. Company President Jeffrey Geiger on Monday told business and legislative leaders during an annual update that the company will meet the Navy's...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/florida/universal-hiring-1700-workers-for-volcano-bay/384779760

Bunge North American is planning to build its first new U.S. processing plant in 15 years to meet growing demand for soy products. The company is considering locations in Ohio and Indiana for the plant, which is expected to go on line by the end of 2019. No cost estimates for the project were disclosed. Tim Gallagher, executive vice president, Oilseed Value Chain for Bunge, said the company saw a need to expand its footprint in the Eastern U.S. — a key market. "A state-of-the-art facility in the Eastern Corn Belt that incorporates the latest productivity, safety and sustainability features...

In November Patently Apple posted a report titled "The Chinese Seem Eager to Open Plants in the US instead of Whining like some in Silicon Valley," followed by a report in December titled "Softbank to Invest $50 Billion in the U.S. to create 50,000 new Tech Jobs and Somehow Foxconn is Included in the Deal." Today we're learning that South Korea's two largest electronics companies are considering building factories in the U.S. for the production of home appliances in view of incoming President Donald Trump's "Made in America" pledge. Several reports out of Asia today note that LG Electronics is...

NEW YORK – French billionaire Bernard Arnault, proprietor of the luxury fashion conglomerate LVMH, announced Monday his intention to “expand” his factories in the United States following his meeting with President-elect Donald Trump. In a statement to reporters upon leaving Trump Tower, Arnault said he considers building in the near future two new textile factories in this country, “possibly” in the state of North Carolina or in Texas. The French fashion entrepreneur said his company has made Louis Vuitton products in California for more than 25 years, and due to the brand’s success, he’s going to expand the business in...

KNOXVILLE, Iowa – One recent morning, I sat near two young men at a coffee shop here whom I’ve known since they were little boys. Now about 18, they pushed away from the table, and one said: “Let’s go to work. Let the liberals sleep in.” The other nodded. They’re hard workers. As a kid, one washed dishes, took orders and swept the floor at a restaurant. Every summer, the other picked sweet corn by hand at dawn for a farm stand and for grocery stores, and then went to work all day on his parents’ farm. Now one is...

DETROIT, U.S. -- Toyota Motor will invest $10 billion in the U.S. over five years to produce new models and boost productivity, the company president announced Monday, amid growing pressure from President-elect Donald Trump to create jobs in America. President Akio Toyoda spoke to reporters at the North American International Auto Show here, where he unveiled the new Camry sedan. Toyota plans to begin manufacturing the new model in Kentucky by the end of the year. Highlighting employment efforts, he stressed that the Japanese automaker has 136,000 workers in the U.S. and has invested $22 billion in the country during...